The Incurable Prankster
by beeftony
Summary: Aang sows a little mischief on the rest of the group in an attempt to bring them closer together.


Sokka had been having a very nice dream. Yue and Suki were there, pressing up against either side of him while he wrapped his arms around them and grinned. Standing was proving to be a little taxing on him, however, despite having two ladies to support him. The life of a warrior tended to take its toll at the most unfortunate times. Now they were lying down, and somewhere along the way Suki had lost her heavy armor and now wore a simple green robe, while Yue's glimmering white clothing billowed as always.

A fourth person joined them, clad in pink with a midriff that seemed to stretch on for miles. She wore her hair in a high braid and had a gigantic smile on her face, mirroring his own. She crawled into the bed with them, but Suki and Yue got upset.

"You don't belong here," Yue told her. "Sokka was mine first."

"Actually, _I_ kissed him first," corrected Suki. "_And _I had the decency not to die right afterwards."

"No, you just disappeared for several months and then abandoned him right after you met again."

"I had a duty to the other Kyoshi warriors! And it didn't help that you were watching us when I tried to kiss him again!"

Sokka held up his hands. "Ladies, ladies. I know how we can settle this."

All of them instantly turned to him, smiling expectantly. "What is it?" they chorused.

"Pillow fight!"

All four of them were now jumping up and down on the bed, batting each other with pillows and sending ostrich-duck feathers flying everywhere like snow. Suki and Yue began kissing, and the girl in pink started towards him. They were about to embrace when...

"Sokka, wake up! There's a prickle snake in your sleeping bag!"

'_I knew it was too good to be true_.' He resisted the urge to sit up screaming, replying instead: "Yeah right, Aang. I'm not falling for _that_ again."

"I'm serious! Don't you feel it?"

Now that Aang mentioned it, Sokka _did_ feel something creeping along his back. It stung just a little, but it didn't hurt too badly. He opened his eyes and looked up at the young Avatar, and noted the absence of a stick in his hands. His eyes snapped open.

"AAAAH!" he shot to his feet and began hopping around the room. "Get it off! Get it off!"

Eventually Sokka regained enough sense to get out of his sleeping bag, whereupon the prickle snake slithered out as well and disappeared harmlessly through a hole in the floorboards. Aang was laughing the entire time.

"What the _hell_, Aang? I was having a nice dream with Suki and Yue and that girl who wears pink and you _ruined it_!"

"Serves you right for still using your sleeping bag even though we're in Ba Sing Se," Aang rebutted. "We have our own beds here."

"I like the comfort it provides!" Sokka shouted defensively. "Although I should really get around to washing it one of these days."

"Yes, you should," Katara agreed, holding her nose and waving her hand through the air as she entered the room. "What was all that noise just now?"

"Aang planted a prickle snake in my sleeping bag."

Aang's eyes darted back and forth. "Who says I put it there?"

"Well," replied Sokka, holding up one of his fingers, "you tried the same trick all the way back at the Southern Air Temple, only you didn't actually have a snake that time." Another finger. "Then there's the fact that you knew it was there in spite of it being _inside _my sleeping bag where no one would be able to see it." He held up a third finger. "And finally, you were laughing at me the whole time. So I'm going to assume it was a prank you pulled."

Aang gave a deep bow. "You got it. I'm an incurable prankster."

"Since when?" Katara challenged, crossing her arms.

"Since today," he answered cheerfully. "Today is usually the day that all the children at the Southern Air Temple would play pranks on each other. Most of the older monks stayed out of it, but Gyatso always had a great time. One time he made a bunch of fruit pies out of bison droppings and airbended them at the other monks!"

"That's disgusting!"

"That's _awesome_!" insisted Sokka. "We should play pranks on everybody else!"

Aang grinned wickedly. "I already have."

"What? There's no way. I mean, Katara's standing right here now; she knows you're planning something. How are you going to surprise her?"

"_Actually_, I woke up to find my bending water had been replaced by onion and banana juice," she informed him, annoyed. "I had an interesting experience trying to bathe myself with it."

Sokka squinted in confusion, pointing a finger curiously. "You _bathe_ yourself with your _bending water_?"

"It's easier than going out to get it from the well!" she huffed. "Which is exactly what I had to do while smelling like onions and bananas. Luckily nobody else is up this time of day."

"But you used that water on the swamp guy!"

"Actually, _you_ drank the rest of that in the desert. I make it a point to replace my bending water daily now. Still, I know the only way it could have gotten swapped is if somebody waterbended it in there."

"Whatever. That's still weird."

"Oh, and using your sleeping bag inside a _house _isn't?"

Sokka crossed his arms and stuck up his chin. "I don't see anything wrong with that."

"I can tell you at least _three_things wrong with—wait, where's Aang?"

They ventured out into the main chamber, where Aang was waiting patiently outside Toph's door. He had a maniacal expression on his face, and was cackling to himself. Sokka went over to his side and adopted a similar demeanor. Katara rolled her eyes.

"So what did you do to Toph?" he whispered.

"You'll see," Aang answered. "Just wait."

"You're going to be waiting a while if you just stand there," Katara interjected. "Toph doesn't get up at the same time as the rest of us."

"Actually, I'm already up." A sudden pall came over the room, and the three of them turned slowly around to where they had heard the voice. Toph was standing there as though nothing was out of the ordinary. "What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing, we just..." Sokka trailed off when he noticed what was different. He started chortling quietly, then doubled over as more laughter came. Eventually he was rolling on the floor.

Toph raised an eyebrow. "What's up with Giggles?"

"Uh, Toph..." Aang began, "you have a little something on your face."

"Really? Where?"

"Above your lips. There's a fuzzy caterpillar there."

"I highly doubt that. I don't feel any fuzz."

Sokka started laughing even harder. "He... he means... CATERPILLAR!" He started to howl.

"Well _that _was helpful. Seriously, what's going on?"

Katara rolled her eyes. "Oh for... Aang drew a moustache on your face!"

Sokka immediately stopped laughing. Aang turned to glare at her. Toph just shrugged. "Oh well." Aang glared even harder.

"What?"

"You _had_ to ruin it!" Sokka shouted. "We could have kept going with her for a whole day if you'd let us! But _nooooo_."

"What you two were doing to her was mean!" she insisted. "You can't just mess with a person like that!"

"Actually, I don't mind," Toph said. "But why were you guys acting all weird about it? It wasn't that good of a prank."

"Are you kidding? It's the _perfect _prank!" protested Sokka. "He's making fun of the fact that you always act like a guy!"

She hardly reacted to that. "Yeah, I guess I do. So what?"

His shoulders slumped. "Well it's no fun if you're not gonna get upset. That's the whole point of pulling pranks!"

"Well then tell Aang to pick a better one next time. After you find him, that is."

"Eh?" They looked around but saw no sign of the Avatar. "Where does he keep sneaking off to?" Sokka wondered, stroking his chin in an attempt to look thoughtful.

"He probably just went to get breakfast. Here's hoping he comes back with some meat."

"I wouldn't count on that," Sokka grumbled. "He's a total vegetarian. No meat whatsoever."

"No meat? Like, at all?"

"You sound surprised," Katara noted. "I would have thought you already knew that."

"Well it's not like I keep track of what Twinkletoes eats!" she protested, plopping down on the floor. "I just thought it was because we didn't run into that many wild animals. You mean he only eats stuff that people grow on a farm?"

"Or in the wild. As long as it's not an animal, he'll eat it. I actually think it's a pretty good idea."

"You would," Sokka accused. "You never did like seal jerky."

"Too much blubber. And I ate fish, remember?"

"Well yeah, but some vegetarians don't count fish."

Katara threw her hands up in frustration. "How do you know these things?"

"I may have talked to Aang a couple times about this when I was craving meat."

"That all sounds _very_ interesting," Toph deadpanned, lying on her back. "So what's gotten into Twinkletoes today? He seems pretty hyper after all that drama queen stuff he pulled out at the Serpent's Pass."

"Apparently he and the other monks used to pull pranks with each other on this day every year," Katara answered very soberly, clutching her hands over her chest. "I guess he's so excited about it because it's one of the few connections to the Air Nomads that he has left. After he lost Appa…."

"Yeah, yeah, spare me the drama talk. What'd he do to you guys?"

"Well, he switched my bending water with onion and banana juice and he planted a prickle snake in Sokka's sleeping bag."

"You still use that thing? We have a house now."

"I _know_, okay?" Sokka gestured furiously, stamping his feet. "What do _you_ care anyway? You sleep on the _ground_!"

"It's comfy, and it lets me see better in case there's an ambush. Besides, it's not like I dug a hole in my room."

Sokka crossed his arms and looked away. "Hmph."

"Anyway, I'm thinking he either went to get breakfast or he's setting you guys up for another prank. We need to get him back."

"I like the sound of that," Sokka replied, grinning. "What do you suggest?"

"It'll mean more if we each think up something ourselves. Shouldn't be that hard for the idea guy."

Sokka stroked his chin. "No, I don't think it'll be hard at all. I've already got a few thoughts."

"Good. We'll need to pull 'em on Twinkletoes before he gets us again. That means we need to be ready by the time he gets back."

Katara crossed her arms. "I'm having no part in this. I'll just head out to the market to get us some food in case that's not what Aang's doing. You two can have your fun if you want, but don't be too mean."

Shrugging, Toph stood up. "Whatever you say, Sugar Queen. I would have thought you'd _love _to get him back after what he did to you. Onion and banana juice? Yick."

"I'm not a revenge-oriented person," she replied. "I've already forgiven him."

"Whatever. Have fun at the market." She started walking away.

"Wait. Toph."

She turned around. "What?"

"You're not going to wash off... you know...?"

Toph shrugged. "Eh. Not like I'm leaving the house anyway. Besides, it actually _is_kinda funny."

"See?" exclaimed Sokka. "I knew it was a great prank."

"Oh, it was still pretty lame. I can think of a dozen better ones he could have pulled. But he could have done worse, too."

"There's just no pleasing you, is there?"

"Nope."

Katara rolled her eyes. "I'll be back in a little while."

* * *

Aang returned a half hour after Katara's departure. When he opened the door, he was confronted by a strange beast with the body of a man, waving its arms wildly. But above the torso, a lemur's face stared back at him.

"Hey Sokka," he greeted in an utterly bored tone as he strode past the mysterious fusion of man and beast. The creature grabbed its monstrous head, pulling out the rest of the lemur and revealing itself to be human all along.

"Darn it, Aang!" he shouted in frustration as Momo scampered off. "You were supposed to scream and fall on your back!"

He shrugged. "You already pulled that trick when General Fong was trying to get me to go into the Avatar State. I never fall for the same thing twice."

"But you already did that thing with the prickle snake! Why do _you_ get to repeat pranks?"

"I guess I'm just better at it than you are," he decided. "You're gonna have to try harder than that."

Grumbling something that was intelligible only to him, Sokka stomped off towards his room.

"Good one, Twinkletoes."

He turned around and saw Toph, who still sported the fake moustache on her face. "Thanks. You still haven't washed that thing off?"

"Nah, not really. I mean, I can't even see it so it doesn't bother me. And I'll admit, it _was_pretty funny. Sokka sure seemed to enjoy it."

"Well I'm glad about that. Why didn't you laugh, though?"

She shrugged. "It wasn't creative enough. I'm sure there are _much_ better pranks you could have pulled."

"Not without waking you up," he pointed out. "Sneaking into your room was hard enough already. It's a good thing you sleep with your feet raised."

"Which I'll be sure to stop doing now that people are sneaking into my room," she muttered. "Where'd you run off to, anyway?"

Aang presented a small rucksack full of food, knowing that she could at least detect that physical action through the vibrations of the earth. "I went out to get breakfast. I've got apples, peaches, rice dumplings, and a couple of cabbages I bought off a guy who seemed really attached to them. There's enough here to share if you want."

She raised a hand. "Thanks, but I like meat better. It's way more satisfying to eat."

"Well that's great, but I'm a vegetarian. I don't eat meat."

"Yeah, Sokka and Katara were telling me about that. You don't even eat fish?"

He shook his head. "Nope. The monks taught me that all life is sacred, so I don't eat any animals. Plants are just as nutritious."

Toph raised an eyebrow. "They taught you _all_life is sacred?"

He nodded. "Yup."

"Well then why are you eating plants? They're alive too, you know."

Aang blinked. "What?"

"Yeah, didn't you know? The reason plants get bigger and bear fruit is because they're just as alive as you and me. The only difference between them and animals is that plants are easier to catch."

He looked away. "I... I didn't know that. Nobody ever told me that."

"Well, you're lucky I'm telling you now. Did you know that when you cut a plant open while it's still alive, it screams? It's too high pitched for normal humans to hear, but I can pick it up sometimes. It's like hearing a _baby _get murdered."

Aang's eyes shot wide open and he dropped the rucksack. "_What_?"

"Yeah, so if you eat plants, you're just as guilty as a person who eats meat. That's why it makes no sense to me that you're vegetarian."

"This is terrible!" He clutched the sides of his head and started pacing back and forth. "I thought I was sparing life by being a vegetarian but I've just been eating things that are even more helpless! Why couldn't I see it before?"

"I guess you were just trying to stay alive," Toph said serenely, as though nothing was wrong. "Just like everybody else who eats stuff."

"No, no, this is awful! I'm not going to eat _anything_ ever again!"

"You have fun with that," Toph said, walking off toward her room. "Just let me know when you finally give in and chew on that fruit's corpse." She snickered and then disappeared behind her door.

Aang just sat there trembling.

Katara adjusted her rucksack to keep it from digging into her shoulder as she worked on opening the door. As she did so, a cabbage escaped its confinement and tumbled through the air, landing on the porch with a dull thud. Sighing, she bent over to pick it up.

'_The guy I bought this from seemed really possessive of it_,' she mused as she returned it to its spot in the rucksack. '_And I swear I've seen him somewhere before. Maybe that's why he kept giving me the evil eye_...' Try as she might, she couldn't recall where she had first encountered the cabbage merchant.

She decided to ponder that mystery another day as she slid the door aside and saw the aftermath of exactly what she'd feared would happen when she left.

He was sitting on the floor, knees drawn close to his chest and rocking steadily back and forth. His face was locked in a thousand yard stare, and Katara felt her heart drop at the sight.

"Aang?"

She immediately dropped her rucksack, spilling the contents over the floor. For some reason, that only made the distraught expression on the young Avatar's face worse. "Aang, what's wrong?"

He turned away from her, and for a single despairing moment Katara worried that her earlier disapproval regarding the cruelty of his pranks may have burst whatever happy bubble the monk had managed to build today. That notion was quickly dispelled when he opened his mouth.

"Never... never going to eat again. Get the cabbage off the floor, it doesn't like to be on the floor it..."

"Aang!" She grasped him by the shoulders and shook him. "Aang, what happened? Why are you talking about cabbage?"

"Cabbage died so I could be a vegetarian," he continued to ramble, paying no attention to her. "Now I see why the merchant was so protective."

"Aang, who told you—" But she already knew the answer. "TOPH!"

The earthbender plodded lazily out of her room, still sporting her moustache from that morning. "What?"

"What did you tell Aang?" she demanded, standing up and glaring at the other girl.

Toph shrugged. "Hey, I just asked him why he's eating plants if he thinks all life is sacred. Plants are alive too, y'know."

"Well why would you do that?" She gestured to the broken Avatar with both hands as he continued to stare straight ahead. "Can't you see he's devastated?"

"Actually, no," she deadpanned. "And besides, he started it."

"How is that even a prank?" a thoroughly bewildered Katara questioned, throwing her hands in the air.

Another shrug.

"See, this is why I didn't want anybody pranking each other today," she continued, stepping closer to tower over the shorter girl. "Aang had good intentions when he started but it's just not a good idea!"

"You're just mad 'cause you had to drink onion and banana juice."

Katara glanced to the side and blushed. "Actually, I wasn't _drinking _it..."

"Wait, you were... Ew!"

"I was just bathing myself with it!" she retorted. "It's not that gross."

Now it was Toph's turn to blush. "Oh. Bathing. Right."

She raised an eyebrow. "What did you think I was talking about?"

Toph was saved from answering when Sokka suddenly burst out of his room with two very large bulges underneath his shirt.

"Aang, you gotta help me!" he shouted desperately in much higher tone than usual, putting his hands over the bulges to steady them. "I was eating a cabbage and it turned me into a wo..." He trailed off when he saw the look on the airbender's face.

Katara and Toph turned to him in annoyance. "NOT NOW, SOKKA!" they thundered.

"Awww..." he whined, turning around to walk away as two cabbages rolled out of his shirt.

"I think you should apologize," Katara insisted.

"For what, telling him the truth? Someone had to."

"No, for being insensitive," she corrected stepping closer to the other girl and pointing accusingly. "Aang's been through a lot lately and he doesn't need _you_ antagonizing him."

"And he doesn't need _you_ babying him," Toph riposted, crossing her arms.

"Do you wanna take this outside?" the waterbender threatened, pointing to the door. "Because I _will _get more onion and banana juice to soak you with."

"Both of you, stop," Aang interjected, standing up and placing a hand on both of their shoulders. His shell-shocked mood seemed to have suddenly evaporated, leaving the two girls very confused. Before they could question it, he continued.

"Today was supposed to bring us closer together," he explained. "See, after we all finished pulling pranks on each other, the monks would bring us together and explained why they let us do it. They told us that by letting out our frustrations with each other in harmless ways, we could avoid tearing ourselves apart with more serious conflict. I wanted to try the same thing here."

Any anger Katara had felt melted away as she was humbled by wisdom that by all rights should not have come from a twelve year old. "Things _have_been getting a little tense between us lately," she admitted. "I guess this was a pretty good way to let it all out." She frowned as a thought occurred to her. "But why were you so upset just now?"

Aang blushed and scratched the back of his head. "I _may _have pretended to be so devastated to fool Toph."

"Wait," the earthbender responded. "You're saying _that_... was just another prank?"

He nodded vigorously. "Yep."

"Heh. Good job, Twinkletoes," she chuckled before punching him very hard in the arm.

"Toph!" Katara scolded, but stopped when Aang held up a hand.

"That's just... how she shows affection," he winced while cradling his shoulder where her fist had connected. "And I might have deserved that."

"Darn right you did," Toph muttered while crossing her arms.

Sokka rushed into the room a final time with a crazed look in his eyes, as though whatever prank he'd cooked up this time was sure to work. "Aang! Look behind you! Appa came back!"

He was met with ten seconds of flabbergasted silence, in which time Toph strode slowly over to him and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Leave the pranks to the professionals, honey."


End file.
